“I could have given an hour-long talk on AI for essentially any disease state we have in dermatology,” David Cotter, MD, PhD, told Dermatology Times at the DERM 2025 NP PA CME Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.1 “I decided to take a bit of an approach to do a high-level potpourri, because it’s more important to understand what’s happening in AI from large trends that are affecting the entire house of medicine.”
One of the upsides of AI in dermatology and all of medicine is its ability to manage some of the administrative tasks that take clinicians away from the things that matter most, like patient care. “Things like AI scribes are decreasing the amount of time we’re spending on notes, things like AI prior authorizations—helping our patients get the medicines and the procedures that they need,” explained Cotter, is a dermatologist at Las Vegas Dermatology. .
Unfortunately, clinicians are not the only ones using AI for administrative tasks. “It’s a double-edged sword,” Cotter explained, because just like we’re using AI to help get things approved, Insurance companies are using AI to get things denied.” In turn, this is triggering class action lawsuits, he added, because “certain companies (like Cigna) are turning down claims every 1.2 seconds and claiming that their physician adjudicated, which just can’t be correct.”2
Clinically, AI may eventually becomes a useful tool, but Cotter does not think we are quite there yet. “We’re seeing AI being utilized to help diagnose skin cancer and augment our diagnostic accuracy as clinicians,” he said. “Turns out that’s not ready for prime time as a standalone technology, but we’re not man versus machine, we’re man with machine. When we utilize AI to augment our own skills that we’ve already owned after years of training, we can actually do better.”
At the end of the day, Cotter encourages clinicians to explore and consider AI’s possibilities. “When it comes to AI the best advice I can give is to lean into it, he told Dermatology Times. “The future is now. We need to embrace these technologies, incorporate them into our practices, and be the stewards of this technology. If we shy away from it, patients may experience harm.”
References
1. Cotter D. Artificial Intelligence: The New Lifeguards in Derm. Presented at DERM 2025 NP PA CME Conference; July 23-26, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada.
2. Court Allows Lawsuit Over AI Use in Benefit Denials to Proceed. Press release. April 22, 2025. Accessed July 26, 2025. https://www.ppibenefits.com/Resource-Library/Compliance-Corner/Health-Welfare-Updates/court-allows-lawsuit-over-ai-use-in-benefit-denials-to-proceed